The minister of Mines and Solid Minerals, Kayode Fayemi has emerged the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State. Fayemi polled a total of 941 votes to defeat his closest rival, Segun Oni who scored 481 and thirty others in the keenly contested primary.

The Chairman of the Ekiti State Governorship Primary Electoral Committee, and governor of Nasarawa state, Umar Tanko Al-Makura, who announced the number of votes scored by each aspirant, declared the former governor winner of the keenly contested election.

With his victory, JKF as he is fondly called, who was governor in the state between October 16, 2010, and 2014 will now face the incumbent Deputy Governor Kolapo Olusola, who is the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and heavily supported by Governor Ayodele Fayose in the election on July 14.

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Speaking earlier on the sideline of the primary, one of the aspirants and the Minister of Mines and Solid Mineral, Kayode Fayemi, said he is not bothered about the conspiracy of some aspirants against him.

Fayemi said as a true democrat and leader, he has a large heart to accommodate everybody and hoped that the party would emerge stronger after the primary.

He said, “It is a competition; people devise all sorts of means when they are in a competition. What is important is that after the exercise whoever emerges winner will be the candidate of the party and to my expectation, all of us will embrace whoever that person is.”

Fayemi said the exercise was better than that of last week but that it would be too early to give a verdict until after the primary.

“It is a much better arrangement today, it is orderly, the instructions are clear, there is no rowdiness in any part of the exercise.

“The committee has done an incredibly good job and the security is also tight. People who have no business are not allowed in. In all these, so far so good. But we can’t reach a conclusion until after the whole exercise,” Fayemi said.

In a similar vein, another aspirant a former governor, Segun Oni, said he is more concerned about the output of the election committee of the All Progressives Congress governorship primary than its membership.

The former Deputy National Chairman of the APC said anyone could conduct the primary in as much as the integrity of the election was not compromised.

Oni added that there were protests over the aborted primary because there was suspicion about the integrity of the primary.

Thirty-two aspirants are jostling for the APC ticket in the July 14 governorship election after one of them opted out of the contest shortly after last week’s botched exercise.